Bengal govt starts trial for mega water supply project

The trial run of much anticipated water supply project for New Town, Salt Lake, Haroa and areas of South Dum Dum have been started by the state government agencies.

The 10.5km pipeline from Rajarhat to Chitpur Lockgate will carry water from the Hooghly to the 100 million gallon per day water treatment plant at Tarulia in New Town.

“The trial run will continue for three months, following which the system will be fully operational,” said a government official, adding that the project cost is estimated to be around Rs 450 crore.

The project was commissioned about two years ago and is being primarily executed by the public health engineering (PHE) department under a committee of several agency officials.

Officials said that state urban development minister Firhad Hakim and PWD minister Subrata Mukherjee stalled to push in the Hooghly water at Debendra Bala ghat, from which the water is being flown into the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation area and into the narrow strip near Kestopur mission bazar area that was developed a few years back.

A steel plate has been fixed on both sides of the narrow strip so that the water does not overflow, but flows into the water treatment plant at Tarulia in Rajarhat.

Some amount of water will be treated at the treatment plant now to check whether the plant is properly executing the purification work. The water will also be clinically tested.

A few months back, the Eastern Railway authorities gave permission to the state agencies to lay a 6ft-diameter pipeline along a 240m-stretch to complete the laying of the pipeline.